Lucian FREUD (1922-2011)

​1945 The Gargoyle Girl​2016 SOLD for £ 2.3M including premium

After the war, intellectuals and artists have fun in Soho. Life finally resumes its rights. Male guys look at young women. Lucian Freud had prepared his pencils and his chalks without waiting until the war is over. He admires the accurate lines in the drawings by Dürer.

Lucian attends the Gargoyle Club and intensely looks at the owner's daughter. The artist feels that he must scrutinize his models from the closest to bring a psychological dimension to his portraits. He already understands that his attitude may be inconvenient, but that does not restrain him. If he knows to seduce his interlocutor, the drawing will be good.

Pauline's drawing by Lucian, 45 x 40 cm on gray-green paper, is estimated £ 2M for sale by Christie's in London on June 30,lot 7. The very short history of their scarcely romantic encounters makes possible to date the work to 1945, when the sitter was 17 years old.

Lucian is a competent artist. The portrait is meticulous, with a great care in the undulating lines of the blond hair. The hair style and the blouse are positioning the girl in the modern world.

Pauline's gaze anticipates the empathy that Lucian will share with his later models. Her left eye is bright while the other is in the shadow, and this difference makes the viewer feel that an eye is wet. The slight oversize of both eyes is probably intended by the grandson of Sigmund Freud to highlight that they constitute the center of his psychological composition.

​​1952 An English Boy under the Gaze of Freud2011 SOLD 3.2 M£ including premium

​PRE SALE DISCUSSION

In London in the 1950s, two figurative painters renew in their own way, but both without complacency, the theme ofthe human figure.

While Bacon develops a blurred vision to express his disgust, LucianFreud does the opposite and shows the almost animal ugliness of the human being by a meticulous approach to realism.

For the grandson of the psychoanalyst, the Other is a mystery that he must tirelessly seek to resolve. He reached a hyper-realistic effect without using photography, by an endless close observation of his sitter.

In 1952, Charlie, an English boy whom Lucian had known for several years, was obligingly playing the role of the model. The reason is simple: Lucian's friends were afraid that the troubles of the heterosexual life of the artist could lead to a fatal act, and invited the young man to create a diversion by accepting this ordeal.

The result is interesting. Like all figures by Lucian, Charlie did get ugly, with his slightly twisted face, his unruly hairand his weary eyes. The operation was successful: the artist did not commit suicide.

The portrait of Charlie by Lucian, oil on canvas 22 x 16 cm, is estimated £ 3M, for sale by Sotheby'sin London on October 13. It is shown in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.

POST SALE COMMENT​Probably disadvantaged by its small size, this interesting painting was sold £ 2.8 million before fees, 3.2 million including premium.

​​1956-1957 An Unfinished Portrait2008 SOLD 5.4 M£ including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

The two star painters at auctions in recent months knew each other very well, obviously. Francis Bacon liked to show his friends in his paintings, but Lucian Freud remained discreet.

Thus, Christie's is only aware of two oil portraits of Bacon by Freud. One of them, painted in 1952, was stolen in 1988 and never reappeared. The other, painted in 1956-1957, is being sold by them in London on October 19.

Freud is a perfectionist, whose goal is that the viewer has the impression of being in the presence of the character. This fact was already told when the painting of a naked woman lying on a sofa reached $ 33 million charge included at Christie's on May 13. At the time, I naively wrote in my article in the French group Art Actuel of this twin network: "An analysis on the reasons for this price (outside the quality of the media actions) would be welcomed." I know now that the characteristic of Freud is that effect of presence.

Freud always wanted his model being beside him, and that could last several months. Otherwise, he did not feel himself sufficiently able to absorb the personality of his subject. Bacon poorly supported sitting sessions, and Christie's thinks he has "fled" before the completion of Freud's work, preferring to pursue one of his male lovers. Fun!

For works whose uniqueness is obvious, major auction houses often indicate that the estimate is upon request. Here the unfinished characteristic of this work (only the central part of the face is complete) possibly led Christie's to try that estimate: 5 to 7 million £.

POST SALE COMMENT​The already ancient prestige of the sitter and the more recent prestige of the painter have made of this artwork one of the more expensive unfinished paintings in the history of auctions: £ 5.4 million including expenses.

​1960-1961 Lucian Freud over the Sofa2014 SOLD 3 M£ including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

The realization of a portrait by Lucian Freud is a quest for empathy with the subject. His perfectionist approach was terrible for his sitters although the endless hours of the session were mitigated by the wit of his speech. It was also challenging for the artist himself, the intense and close up view of the subject causing him headaches.

In 1960, Freud understands that he can not maintain such a rigor. He changes his brushes to enable a faster drawing that will also change the angle of view and lead to focus on the psychological expression through color.

For such portraits, Freud could only work with people he knew well. Lady Lambton, nicknamed Bindy, was among them. No matter that her face is too hard, her chin too long and her hair too thick, the extreme realism of the portraits by Freud could only appeal to the model.

Wife of a parliamentarian, Bindy led in London the life of a worldly woman, friend of artists. Later, the husband will lose in a prostitution affair his position in the British government.

On February 12 in London, Sotheby's sells a portrait of Bindy titled Head on a green sofa, oil on canvas 92 x 92 cm estimated £ 2.5 M.

This painting made in 1960-1961 benefited from the new phase in the art of Freud with an interesting view from above model's head, in an angle that he could not have been able to achieve with his earlier method of almost biological inspection of the sitter.

I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's. The resemblance between portraits and photos of Bindy is striking.

POST SALE COMMENT

This interesting portrait was sold for £ 3M including premium, within its range of estimates.

​​1961 Waiting for Bella​2016 SOLD for £ 16M including premium

Lucian Freud is a creator. In his time when birth control is uncertain and controversial, he gives life. He expresses through his art the feelings brought to him by these events.

Life in Soho is conducive to these stories of another time. In 1959, Bernadine is 16 and wishing to escape a too rigorous education. Lucian is twenty years older. On the following year, she is pregnant with their first daughter, Bella. Francis and Bernadine are deeply and sincerely in love, but not enough to live together. Their relationship, however, is sustainable: a second birth will follow and their friendship will last until the end of their lives, a few days apart in 2011.

The art of his friend Francis Bacon is resolutely modern. Expression has replaced realism. Lucian wants to follow this path and observes Bernadine with a renewed attention. The theme of the sleeping woman, previously experienced by Picasso with Marie-Thérèse, is conducive to confidence and privacy. Lucian is perhaps not yet the incorrigible talkative of his later career: he lets Bernadine asleep.

On February 10 in London, Sotheby's sells Pregnant girl, lot 17 estimated £ 7M. This oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm is a larger than life bust portrait achieved in 1961 showing Bernadine within a deep sleep. Her turned head avoids both the lover and the viewer. Lucian had seen the effects of pregnancy on the naked flesh of the torso.

​​​1978 The Freudian Eye2010 SOLD 2.84 M£ including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

Lucian Freud uses a hyper-realistic vision for showing human flesh in life size. His greatest success at auction is the painting of 1995 showing the big Sue lying naked on the sofa to the artist, sold $ 33.6 million including premium at Christie's on May 13, 2008.

Since yesterday, another work excites the art press. Estimated £ 3 million by Sotheby's, for sale in London on February 10, it has the advantage of mixing art and story, and had remained unpublished until now.

Freud admits that he was a brawler. In 1978 a taxi driver throws a punch in his face. The artist admires his swollen eye adorning his newly distorted face, and makes a self-portrait as an oil on canvas 18 cm high (from the lips to the top of the hair) and 14 cm wide.

I had a choice between a half-dozen sites to provide you the link to that artwork. The image shared by AuctionPublicity has the advantage of showing it full in its vertical format, and not a detail limited to eye level.

POST SALE COMMENT

This painting of very small size has been sold £ 2.84 million including premium. So it has not reached its estimate.

​1982-1983 Esther and Ib2016 SOLD for £ 4.8M including premium

Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon influenced each other, although their styles are different. Both admit that they can not do the portrait of people to whom they are not close. The bright color and thick paste participate in their reconstruction of life. A small format 36 x 31 cm is suitable for the picture of a head.

In the early 1980s, Lucian discovers with amazement that his elder children began their lives of young adults. He offers them the long sittings that create the necessary empathy.

The method of Lucian with his models is in the opposite to Francis who works only with photographs and with his memory. Lucian is a charmer. He literally makes his models glowing by telling stories, singing, sharing extraordinary foods. The word 'glowing' was chosen by Esther Freud to express her feelings during these long hours.

On February 11 in London, Christie's sells the Head of Esther as lot 15 and the Head of Ib as lot 16. Both paintings that can form a pair come from the same "important private European collection" and are estimated £ 2.5M each.

Esther, born in 1963, began the process in 1982-1983 and Ib, born in 1961, took over in 1983-1984. The physical resemblance of the half sisters allowed a similar technique. The image is almost a living sculpture with the flesh of the cheek expressed by a thick colored impasto and the hair combed by the brush of the artist.

The two young women have their head on the pillow which is the most comfortable position during the long viewings by the father. When Esther is on the left and Ib on the right, they face each other. In their attitude of full confidence, Esther opens her eyes and Ib sleeps. The reflection in the eye of Esther strengthens her presence.

1992 Freud in the Shadow of Nefertiti2007 SOLD for $ 19.4M including premium by Christie's​2016 UNSOLD

PRE 2016 DISCUSSION

​When he turned the age of 70, Lucian Freud was taken in a frenzy of creativity.

On June 30 in London, Christie's sells as lot 26 a significant artwork from that period. This oil on canvas 168 x 147 cm painted in 1992 shows his natural daughter Ib and her husband lying on a bed. Ib is pregnant with her third child and sleeps with a blissful smile. Pat tenderly embraces her. The press release of April 28 announced an estimate around £ 18M.

I have too much mentioned in this column the intellectual efforts of Lucian for keeping his models steady. Now Ib is sleeping. The real engine of Lucian's creativity is not empathy, even with his natural children whom he was so happy to meet again after having abandoned their childhood.

Lucian developed an obsessive idea of ​​perfection, up to somehow ignoring the plurality of art. In the pre-sale video made by Christie's to introduce Benefits Supervisor resting, the already very old artist is seen stating with an intense conviction: "I want each picture I am working on to be the only picture that everyone has ever done".

Throughout his long career, he also maintained his belief that he is above all interested in the physical presence, reducing the human being to the animality of the body. Lucian is not Sigmund. however there is a link between his obsession and the unforgettable personality of his grandfather.

Lucian painted bodies, naked or not. But it is a still life with book painted in 1991-1992 that provides the key to the genesis of his inspiration. The book is a history of Egypt opened on two photos of figures of El Amarna. Sigmund Freud was a great lover of antiques that supported his vision on the continuity of human psychology and the Amarna art is a rare moment in art history of a successful quest for an absolute realism using the technique of painted sculptures.

Lucian is not a sculptor but his impasto becomes extremely thick, bringing art and life closer through the availability of all color pigments. The culmination of this approach in 1993 is the study of his own naked body shown in his painting occupation. The masterpiece of Lucian Freud is in fact nothing else than himself fossilized for ever within his own impasto.

He was wrong. The art continues to evolve despite his desire to freeze it. We will one day forget Lucian Freud. We will never forget the bust of Nefertiti, the eternal masterpiece of Amarna art.

​1994 The Top Model of the Flesh2015 SOLD for $ 56M including premium

Lucian Freud is not passionate by the skin but by the flesh whose blistering expresses the personality of the model. The culmination of art is a raw representation of the human person in which the artifact of painting disappears behind a total realism.

The big body of Sue Tilley answers this request. For months, Sue comes for sittings in the nude in the small studio of Lucian, every weekend and many other days after her working time as benefits supervisor.

The first painting is done in 1993. Sue is lying naked on the floor. Lucian appreciates that this uncomfortable position is not conducive for achieving his goal. He will set a sofa on which Sue can now keep and retrieve a serene position. The small precise movement of the brush follows a systematic observation of the model, without impulse or emotion, for many hours.

The second painting, Benefits Supervisor resting, was executed in 1994. This oil on canvas 151 x 161 cm is estimated $ 30M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 31B. The artist has succeeded. The body is the only subject of this nude painting where her head thrown backwards has no other role than to ensure the stability of the attitude.

Benefits Supervisor sleeping was painted in the following year with the same sofa. This oil on canvas 151 x 219 cm was sold for $ 33,6M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2008.

I invite you to play the video shared by Christie's, including some interesting comments by Sue Tilley and photos. The obesity of the muse is less visible when the body is held by her clothing.

​2001 A Friend of Big Sue2014 SOLD for $ 17M including premium

In 1995, Lucian Freud painted the image of the big Sue. The oil on canvas 151 x 219 cm entitled Benefits Supervisor sleeping was sold for $ 33,6M including premium at Christie's on May 13, 2008.

Sue is a lifesize nude on a Freudian couch. The artist is not a psychiatrist. He does not need to communicate with the model, and it does not disturb him when the woman is sleeping peacefully. His sessions are endless. Freud wants to explore all the details of the flesh considered as an animal border.

It should not be so rude to show off one's nudity for Freud: a friend of Sue named Julie gets in turn such a favor. She also falls asleep during a sitting.

On November 12 in New York, Christie's sells an oil on canvas 122 x 152 cm painted in 2001 and titled Julie and Martin, lot 51 estimated $ 15M.

The old artist is not jealous of the young naked woman who is sleeping confidently with her head resting on a hip of her lover Martin. The fully dressed man is softly caressing the breast of the woman.

As for Sue, the flesh dominates over any aesthetics that does not concern Freud. With their serene and innocent presence, these two characters provide an intimate portrait of a modern couple.

​​2003-2004 The Soul of a British Officer​2015 SOLD for $ 35M including premium

Before he retired in 1994, the figure of Andrew Parker Bowles often appeared in news photos but he remained anonymous despite his imposing posture. Colonel commanding the Household Cavalry before his promotion to the honorary rank of Brigadier, he assured the bodyguard to Queen Elizabeth II.

This aristocrat had previously shared the royal children's passion for horses and polo. The Prince of Wales will much later marry Camilla newly divorced from the Brigadier. The hero attended the wedding without resentment.

Lucian Freud was fond of horses, too, and a longtime friend of Andrew Parker Bowles. He painted his portrait in 2003-2004. During 18 months at a rate of three times a week and four hours per session, the Brigadier came to sit in the artist's studio.

Lucian's process is unique in the history of portrait painting. He rushed to the face of his model to inspect a tiny detail that provoked an equally abrupt return to save it on the canvas. Then he saturated his guest in an endless chatter before being ready to proceed with another detail. Lucian was very witty, which was quite necessary to maintain the patience of his models.

The obsession of the artist was to create lifelike works at the opposite of the dryness of a photograph. His method totally different from Bacon's led also to a strong emotion but Lucian managed to keep the realistic features of his characters. The Brigadier is still admiring today his portrait by Freud, better than life even in the glare of the medals.

The officer is not Sue Tilley. Lucian had not imposed an acrobatic attitude to this dignified sexagenarian who was indeed required to take the same position again at each new session. The result looks like a classic military portrait excepted that it is extraordinary in its psychological rendering.

This oil on canvas 224 x 138 cm is featured in Christie's evening sale in New York on November 10, lot 31B. I invite you to watch the video shared by the auction house, in which this piece is discussed by Brett Gorvy.